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Opera for Beginners (Part 3 of 3)
I talked about Opera for Beginners for my family reunion talk and used much of the advice I was given here, thank you! :)
-I brought speakers, because there isn't much use in giving an opera talk if you can't hear the music! The hilarious thing was that I was not the only one who had audio/audiovisual components to my presentation, but I was the only one who had brought speakers. I had been a little bitter about lugging them all around Montana, but less so when they turned out to be broadly useful :) What was more irritating was that after they worked fine when I tried them out in my office, they didn't work at all for a while when I was trying to give the talk. Finally my cousin's teenager, who was acting as unofficial tech support, suggested rebooting as a last resort, and of course that worked. Sigh.
-A couple of people mentioned talking about where one might go looking for opera. My biggest recommendations to a newbie are the following:
1.The Chandos Opera in English CDs, without which I would still hate opera today. I highly highly recommend all the Mozart ones, particularly the da Ponte operas (Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte), and the bel canto comedies (e.g., Barber of Seville, The Elixir of Love), and dis-recommend their Verdi except Don Carlos (for some reason Verdi tends to come out a bit muddled). Their French opera also seems to be very good, and I absolutely adore their Eugene Onegin (which stars Thomas Hampson and Kiri te Kanawa).
2. Met On Demand, which comes with a free 7-day trial. People who know a lot about opera rag on the Met for not being adventurous in its staging and concept, which, fair, but for a beginner, in my opinion, that's exactly what you want, and you can't do better than the Met for gorgeous staging and costumes, great singers, and great videography, which I didn't even know would affect me until I started watching a bunch of these... and... it does actually make a huge difference when watching video. (Watching live is, of course, different.)
-I showed several clips, one of which was a 3-minute clip of Kaufmann/Hampson/Salminen in the auto-da-fe scene from Don Carlo. (Alagna/Keenlyside/Furlanetto is still the whole version of Don Carlo I would recommend, but for auto-da-fe out of context I thought the former was better, not least because it didn't have a giant weeping Jesus in the background.) I explained beforehand the background about how Posa is Prince Carlo's best friend but also has the relationship where he has sworn fealty to King Philip. (I have uploaded the clip here (google drive video clip, ~3 minutes) --![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mildredofmidgard, I know music/opera is Not Your Thing but this is the moment in Don Carlo I was talking about, check it out) and my big triumph, as far as I am concerned, is that when the clip ended my cousin cried out, "Oh, that's so sad!" MY WORK HERE IS DONE.
-My other great triumph was that E was curious about what I said about Don Giovanni. Being her, she could not care less about Don G himself -- she was perfectly content with a limited understanding that he was the Bad Guy -- but she was particularly interested in what I said about Don G coming to a sticky end, and asked about it the next day. Once I further explained that there was a singing statue and that in many productions Don G disappeared into flames with the statue at the end, both she and A really wanted to watch it, so that afternoon we all snuggled up on the couch and watched "Don Giovanni, a cenar teco" (this one with Rodney Gilfrey) and they still ask for "the statue opera" on occasion. (That's the only part they have watched or are interested in watching, or that I am interested in playing for them, until they're a lot older. Well, okay, "O statua gentilissima," but that's along the same lines.)
-Since you guys said it was fun for people to recognize music in opera, another short clip I showed was from Thais, because, well, I don't know if it's all Koreans or just my particular family, but all our extended relatives LOOOOOVE Meditation from Thais and all of us cousins who play violin (or piano, if that cousin happened to be near one of the cousins who played violin) have had to play that song approximately six million times, every time a third cousin twice removed came to visit. There was much groaning when the melody was revealed :)
-It turns out my aunt (uncle's wife) really likes opera!!!! We are already making plans to go to Salzburg or Italy sometime and watch opera :D (well, pipe dreams right now... I certainly wouldn't go until my kids are older)
(Part 1 was where I asked for help; Part 2 was an outtake of this post about emoting in opera)
-I brought speakers, because there isn't much use in giving an opera talk if you can't hear the music! The hilarious thing was that I was not the only one who had audio/audiovisual components to my presentation, but I was the only one who had brought speakers. I had been a little bitter about lugging them all around Montana, but less so when they turned out to be broadly useful :) What was more irritating was that after they worked fine when I tried them out in my office, they didn't work at all for a while when I was trying to give the talk. Finally my cousin's teenager, who was acting as unofficial tech support, suggested rebooting as a last resort, and of course that worked. Sigh.
-A couple of people mentioned talking about where one might go looking for opera. My biggest recommendations to a newbie are the following:
1.The Chandos Opera in English CDs, without which I would still hate opera today. I highly highly recommend all the Mozart ones, particularly the da Ponte operas (Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte), and the bel canto comedies (e.g., Barber of Seville, The Elixir of Love), and dis-recommend their Verdi except Don Carlos (for some reason Verdi tends to come out a bit muddled). Their French opera also seems to be very good, and I absolutely adore their Eugene Onegin (which stars Thomas Hampson and Kiri te Kanawa).
2. Met On Demand, which comes with a free 7-day trial. People who know a lot about opera rag on the Met for not being adventurous in its staging and concept, which, fair, but for a beginner, in my opinion, that's exactly what you want, and you can't do better than the Met for gorgeous staging and costumes, great singers, and great videography, which I didn't even know would affect me until I started watching a bunch of these... and... it does actually make a huge difference when watching video. (Watching live is, of course, different.)
-I showed several clips, one of which was a 3-minute clip of Kaufmann/Hampson/Salminen in the auto-da-fe scene from Don Carlo. (Alagna/Keenlyside/Furlanetto is still the whole version of Don Carlo I would recommend, but for auto-da-fe out of context I thought the former was better, not least because it didn't have a giant weeping Jesus in the background.) I explained beforehand the background about how Posa is Prince Carlo's best friend but also has the relationship where he has sworn fealty to King Philip. (I have uploaded the clip here (google drive video clip, ~3 minutes) --
mildredofmidgard, I know music/opera is Not Your Thing but this is the moment in Don Carlo I was talking about, check it out) and my big triumph, as far as I am concerned, is that when the clip ended my cousin cried out, "Oh, that's so sad!" MY WORK HERE IS DONE.-My other great triumph was that E was curious about what I said about Don Giovanni. Being her, she could not care less about Don G himself -- she was perfectly content with a limited understanding that he was the Bad Guy -- but she was particularly interested in what I said about Don G coming to a sticky end, and asked about it the next day. Once I further explained that there was a singing statue and that in many productions Don G disappeared into flames with the statue at the end, both she and A really wanted to watch it, so that afternoon we all snuggled up on the couch and watched "Don Giovanni, a cenar teco" (this one with Rodney Gilfrey) and they still ask for "the statue opera" on occasion. (That's the only part they have watched or are interested in watching, or that I am interested in playing for them, until they're a lot older. Well, okay, "O statua gentilissima," but that's along the same lines.)
-Since you guys said it was fun for people to recognize music in opera, another short clip I showed was from Thais, because, well, I don't know if it's all Koreans or just my particular family, but all our extended relatives LOOOOOVE Meditation from Thais and all of us cousins who play violin (or piano, if that cousin happened to be near one of the cousins who played violin) have had to play that song approximately six million times, every time a third cousin twice removed came to visit. There was much groaning when the melody was revealed :)
-It turns out my aunt (uncle's wife) really likes opera!!!! We are already making plans to go to Salzburg or Italy sometime and watch opera :D (well, pipe dreams right now... I certainly wouldn't go until my kids are older)
(Part 1 was where I asked for help; Part 2 was an outtake of this post about emoting in opera)
Re: War of the Austrian Succession
There's a lot to keep straight! We've been mostly going for the characterization/fandom type anecdotes, and sneaking in the military and political history in bits and pieces. This was the first time I thought you had enough context on events and personalities that a chronology would be 1) comprehensible and 2) interesting, instead of boring. Like, you can really see Fritz's personality (and to a lesser extent MT's) reflected in a close reading of those dates!
Re: War of the Austrian Succession
problematic enough to bean all-time fave. :PRe: War of the Austrian Succession
Karl Albrecht of Bavaria: My wife is MT's aunt, the daughter of her dad's older brother. If we're counting WOMEN, I totally should be Emperor (and get Austria, too.)
Friedrich August of Saxony: (legitimate kid of August the Strong, he of the hundreds of potential offspring): My wife is also an aunt of Resi's. Just saying. Also, Fritz isn't the only northern German who can invade.
Philip of Spain (another one!): So I'm a French Bourbon, not a Habsburg, but the Habsburgs used to rule Spain until me. (I'm the first Bourbon on the throne.) Therefore, I should totally rule Austria and the Holy Roman Empire now. At least I'm not A WOMAN.
All of them: *pounce along with Fritz*
MT: *allies with England and the Netherlands, on the rationale that England is ready for anything anti France and the Netherlands ditto for anything anti Spain*
Karl Albrecht: I win! First Emperor of the House of Wittelsbach since 300 years! Take that, Habsburgs!
MT in 1742: *has a preliminary and temporary truce with Fritz which allows the Austrian army to counterinvade Bavaria*
Bavaria: *keeps switching being occupied by the Austrians and the French for the next few years*
1745: Karl Albrecht dies at a point where the Austrians are dominant in Bavaria; his son, refreshingly, is not called Karl or August or Friedrich but Maximilian
MT: So, Max. Want Bavaria back?
Maximilian: withdraws any Wittelsbach claim to the throne in exchange for Bavaria and also supports the election of Franz Stefan as Emperor. Franzl gets duly elected.
Philip & Friedrich August: Now that's just cheating!
ETA: The Young Maria Theresia: The Vid. (Just two minutes, thus managable. :)
Re: War of the Austrian Succession
Also thank you for the vid -- yes, two minutes makes it much more likely I will watch it immediately :D
Re: War of the Austrian Succession
You're getting an education! :DDD
Especially Philip's logic!
Everyone's logic is amazing. Also selenak's capitalization of "WOMAN" throughout this Pragmatic Sanction discussion has been savage and hilarious and much appreciated by me.
Re: War of the Austrian Succession
+1000000000 this was SO GREAT
Re: War of the Austrian Succession
Re: War of the Austrian Succession
At one point, Fritz broke out the "There's nothing more vindictive than a woman who doesn't know when to give up" misogyny about MT. While writing about his attempts to take and keep Silesia and fight three-front wars.
Me: *stares at him*
Ghost of Fritz: What? I was a MAN who didn't know when to give up, that's COMPLETELY different.
You keep telling yourself that, Fritz.
Tragic ship chronology
February 28*, 1704: Katte born.
January 24, 1712: Fritz born.
November 6, 1730: Katte executed, age 26. Fritz is 18.
August 17, 1786: Fritz dies in his sleep, age 74.
* Per Wikipedia. I've seen the precise date questioned on the internet, albeit not by a reliable source.
We don't know exactly when they met, maybe 1728/9. :'-(